A wireless communication system is known in which a plurality of wireless communication terminal (hereinafter simply referred to as “terminal”) perform a wireless communication with each other. One type of the wireless communication system is structured so that terminals directly communicate with each other by radio, while the other type is structured so that a wireless communication center module (hereinafter simply referred to as “center module”) as a wireless communication relay, which controls the communication state of a plurality of terminals, performs radio communication with a plurality of the terminals, by which the terminals implement a communication with each other via the center module. Such wireless communication systems are applied as a wireless communication system for use, for example, in restaurants. Hereinafter, a description will be given of a conventional wireless communication system by taking as an example the case where a wireless communication system, composed of a plurality of terminals and a center module which controls the communication state of these terminals, is used in restaurants, more particularly in quick service restaurants having drive-thru facility.
When this kind of wireless communication system is used in a quick service restaurant, a center module is placed at an appropriate spot (near an order counter for example) inside the restaurant. The terminals include a terminal as a intercommunication equipment (hereinafter abbreviated as “intercom”) carried by staff members including a manager (store manager), a sub-manager (assistant manager), and store personnel (salesclerks), a menu board having a microphone and a speaker for use by drive-thru customers as a part of a drive-thru system including a confirmation order display (COD), and a kitchen terminal placed inside the kitchen.
The terminals for the manager and the sub-manager are provided with a manager setting. The wireless communication system has a plurality of communication channels. In this example, four channels are assumed to be provided. Out of these channels, one channel is reserved exclusively for the terminals with the manager setting (hereinafter referred to as “terminal with manager setting”), and the rest of three channels are used by other terminals (hereinafter referred to as “terminal with general setting”).
For the communication of the terminals with general setting, every time a terminal performs a communication, a communication channel is assigned thereto. Since three channels are assigned to the terminals with general setting in this example, the terminals with general setting can simultaneously perform a communication with use of up to three communication channels. However, since the number of communication channels which can be assigned to the terminals with general setting is limited to three, four or more terminals with general setting cannot perform a communication at the same time. When a terminal with general setting initiates a new communication while other terminals with general setting are already using the three communication channels, the terminal with general setting, which initiated a communication the earliest among the terminals with general setting that already initiated their communications, is forced to be disconnected from its communication to give up the communication channel for the communication of the new terminal with general setting.
In the conventional wireless communication system, page mode and talk mode are provided as a communication mode. The page mode is the mode which disconnects a communication with the customer and connects a communication only with the staff members. More specifically, in the page mode, the menu board having a speaker as a sound output section is disconnected from the wireless communication system, so that a call sound is not emitted from the speaker of the menu board. Use of the page mode allows business communication between the staff members. In the talk mode, the terminals including the menu board can perform a communication, so that the talk mode is used in the normal operation such as taking orders at the drive-thru.
The staff member can perform a communication by specifying the page mode or the talk mode by operating a button provided on the intercom that is a terminal. The drive-thru system includes a vehicle sensor for detecting a vehicle which places an order at the drive-thru. The talk mode is also started upon detection of the vehicle by the vehicle sensor.
Since one of four communication channels is reserved for the terminals with manager setting, the terminals with manager setting can perform a communication any time regardless of the using state of the three remaining communication channels. Accordingly, the manager and the sub-manager can reliably provide emergency or important notifications to other staff members.